easter egg hunt

Who doesn't love an easter egg hunt?  And who doesn't love to take silly pictures?  Even the teenagers don't want to miss out on this family tradition.  

Say yes to the 19 dresses

Allie doesn't like to shop, unless it is for athletic wear.  So when she needed some new church clothes I headed out alone and got a little carried away.  I was in and out of 5 stores and just bought everything that I thought she might consider not-too-frilly, was comfortable (knit is a good thing), and on sale.  I was surprised that I found so many I thought she might like and just kept buying, knowing I'd be bringing most of them back.  Little did I know that I had actually purchased 19 dresses by the time I was done.  Allie's worst nightmare was about to happen.....trying on clothes.

The first 7 out of 10 she tried on she liked, amazing!!  She tried on the dresses in a record 2 sessions, equally amazing.  The final "thumbs up" count was 10 out of the 19.  I was pretty impressed with myself.  I think I should be a personal shopper.  To find 10 dresses that Allie actually really likes is pretty much a miracle.  I think we've narrowed it down to 7 that she's keeping, and I'm thrilled.  Great bargains (one dress was only $11) and a dressed up daughter!

                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                          

Salsa

We have a new tradition.  It revolves around food..what a surprise.  We started making salsa.  All the time. The Cruzes make salsa often when we get together to play games and we love it, except for 1 ingredient...avocado.  We finally decided to follow Scott's lead and create our perfect salsa with everything we like in it.  As long as you have the few main ingredients you can throw whatever else you have on hand and it turns out yummy!  Tomatoes, pineapple, mango, any type of onion, cucumber, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, green, red, yellow pepper, a dash of salt, a teaspoon of sugar.  I'm anxious to create a non-fruity corn and black bean salsa next.

                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                  

Nourishment

For a few years Allie and I have had the tradition of making cinnamon rolls the night of the Priesthood session for Sunday morning.  I don't know why, but tasty food just seems to go with conference weekend to me.  We added conference quiche in the last year to give us some salty with the sweet.  This year Allie was doing her lifeguard certification so I didn't have my baking buddy that night.  Instead I made scones for the first time with the new scone pan Julie gave me for my birthday.  YUM!  They were a hit!  I love conference weekend where I am spiritually and physically nourished (:  A few of my of my favorite conference quotes:   "If you've been offended, do a lot of forgiving and a little repenting." - Elder Packer,  "Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary use words." = Pres. Uchtdorf

Storms

So, east Tennessee is known for having some pretty awesome thunderstorms.  Last night we had a powerful storm that lasted about 5 hours of heavy rain, strong winds and thunder and lightening.  Nothing too out of the ordinary.

The next morning we woke up to find one of the glass panels in our sideboard shattered.  We assume it's related to the storm somehow, as it appeared to happen after we all went to bed.  WEIRD.  Another water related accident?

I'm old

So I recently turned 41.  For about the last year I have noticed that I was having to squint and hold small print a little further back to be able to read it.  I would think "Why is everything looking so blurry and hard to read?  I'm waaay to young to need reading glasses."  Complete denial.  A couple of friends took me out for a birthday lunch and as I was struggling to read what they had written in a card in the dim lighting, I finally said, "oh well I'll read it at home."  My seasoned friend said "here, try these" and handed me her reading glasses.  I burst out laughing with surprise and excitement as I could actually read the words, clearly!!  It's a miracle!  Why had I not gotten some of these a long time ago??  All those nights of reading in bed, squinting in the dim lighting...Needless to say, when I left the restaurant I went straight to the store to pick up a pair for myself.  Even though I feel old.  It's worth it.

Akumal

We decided we wanted to have a memorable vacation in celebration of Trey's last official spring break at home.  After searching around we finally decided on Akumal, Mexico.  It's a very small town about an hour and half south of Cancun.  The kids were so excited to get passports and asked if maybe this might be where Trey goes on his mission.  (who knows? maybe)

Highlights of the trips: XelHa:  An amazing lagoon with snorkling, cliff jumping, zipline, dolphin swim, and more.

This was the kid's first experience with snorkeling.  It took Connor a while to get the hang of it.  Sydney was loving it until she saw a very large barracuda!
  

                                                There were giant lizards everywhere!

 Connor's favorite thing there were the hammocks and all you can eat buffet.

This rope bridge was intense! 

The highlight for Trey, Allie and Sydney was when they swam with the dolphins!

 The Tulum ruins

We had the beach to our selves.  The cousins spent their time running between the beach, pool, and grassy area that they played "world cup" on and chilled in the hammocks.

The kids never did get used to the idea of brushing their teeth with bottled water.  They loved saying Gracias and Hola to everyone.  We enjoyed walking about a mile up the beach to one of the few restaurants in the town. (and were happy we got to see BYU play during one dinner!)  So happy to enjoy this family time together...a trip we'll never forget.